THE RACE EDITION: ISSUE 85, VOLUME 112
WHITE HOT MADNESS
by Malik Isasis
During the Civil Rights Era, the media tried discrediting Martin Luther King, Jr. when he spoke truth to power by inflating white fear of black nationalism. Here we go again, with a very unimaginative, but very effective media psy-ops, to discredit not only a national scholar, but also the President of the United States just as they did a long list of black social activists.
When President Obama is perceived as being too black, or siding with blacks, the corporate media rushes in like a nun, smacking his hand with the proverbial ruler. Black folks’ anger about racial profiling has to be pre-approved by the white corporate infrastructure. Since President Obama disagreed with the arrest of Professor Gates, the corporate media has rushed to do polls to show that a majority of whites disagreed with the president, and that a large majority of black folks agreed with the president, and wouldn’t you know, black folks’ opinions weren’t even considered, plainly obvious in the booking of white punditry and blackface likeminded commentators to discuss racial profiling in America.
The Forensics of Jeremiah Wright: How Playing the game Lead to President’s Obama predictable Response to Professor Henry Louis Gates’, Jr. Arrest
President Obama set precedence for the corporate media when during the campaign last summer, a video of his then pastor, Jeremiah Wright, preaching black liberation theology and politics, surfaced. The corporate media worked themselves into lather after Obama initially came out in support of Pastor Wright. The punditry class from their ivory towers raised their fists and demanded that Obama disown his pastor for weeks, spending hours upon hours dissecting Wright’s words and penning the tail on the donkey of the Obama campaign. The corporate media has sanctioned Obama for NOT throwing his former pastor under the bus the first time, and embracing him as family. The price: nearly two months of a non-stop thirty second excerpt, looping over and over, and over of Reverend Wright’s fiery delivery of “…God damn America…” and an over appraisal of then candidate Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination. Then candidate Obama gave a speech on race in Philadelphia to which, Knuckle-dragger, Charles Krauthammer responded,“he blamed everybody for racism -- black, white and grandmother, except himself,” he nonetheless “was hailed by a supine press as the second coming of Lincoln at Cooper Union. So after, that you think you can say anything on race and be hailed as a genius.”
It wasn’t until Pastor Jeremiah Wright came out again and spoke of governmental AIDS conspiracies and racism that Obama decided to denounce him and leave the church. After candidate Obama’s denouncement of Wright, the punditry and corporate media put forth the supposition that Obama did it only because it was causing his poll numbers to go down.
The media reported on Reverend Jeremiah Wright with their foot on the scale, and then pretended that it is Obama’s problem. He quickly got the message and promptly disowned Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Black politicians are always asked to repudiate or distance themselves from black activists, however when it comes to white, right wing radical hate mongers such as Pat Robertson, or the late Jerry Farwell, white politicians aren't held to the same standard.
Obama has played the game. Now they’ve defined the narrative. So when it came to case of Professor Henry Louis, Gates Jr., the outcome was predictable.
President Obama came out strong for Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. during a press conference on health care. Stating that he didn’t have all the facts, but knowing that Gates was arrested after showing his identification was racial profiling. The corporate media predictably went ape shit, hour after hour, stating that the president shouldn’t have come down on the side of the professor.
One writer for a paper went as far as to report: Fellow officers, black and white, say Crowley is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout. That’s equivalent of saying, “Some of my best friends are black.”
The corporate media is one of the most destructive forces in American culture. Remember the Roman gladiatorial combats? Man versus man—man versus beast? Thousands would pack the coliseum just to watch the bloody carnage; what about some of the theocratic governments in the Middle East where there are government sponsored stonings or beheadings in a soccer stadium? Or how about in the early 20th century America, where people would get dressed in their Sunday’s best to see a lynching?
This is what the corporate media tries to tap into, humanity’s morbid fascination with violence, destruction and death. The corporate media sickness lies in its collective ideology: white supremacy. White supremacy is the idea that white people are more superior to other ethnic groups, and anything that veers outside of the white knowledge base is seen as a threat; the corporate media and higher education would have you believe that exclusively skinheads or other white separatist groups hold this ideology, but in fact, it is the founding ideology of the United States. It is why this country was founded on twin genocides of Native Americans and African slaves. It is why there was a hundred years of American apartheid against African Americans in the United States after the abolishment of slavery. It is also why, this country feels it can occupy and subjugate two Muslim countries. And it is why when other ethnic groups speak out about the injustices and destructiveness of the white supremacy ideology, they are quickly discredited.
Black folks are supposed to be quiet about their genocide. We are told that it is history, and to stop whining. Those who do not shut up are labeled race baiters, or race pimps, or even black separatist. Never mind that collectively, African Americans hold absolutely no power in this country.
The continuing legacy of white supremacy is what Dr. Martin Luther King referred to as the false sense of white superiority and a false sense of black inferiority. This Eurocentric view drives those who have bought into white supremacy to believe that white people consequently have an obligation to breakdown other cultures making them completely docile, thus, easier to rule over.
Corporate media likes to pretend and spread folklore that racism and white bigotry starts with someone like reverend Al Sharpton, but it is a ploy, if you discredit Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson, you discredited black thought. The cognitive dissonance is astounding, which allows the perversity of Fox News and people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to call Judge Sonia Sotomayor for wanting more people of color in law, and President Obama for nominating her, reverse racists.
One of the biggest issues of white supremacy is the perception of experience. White folks tend to think that their life experience is more important than others. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a poll indicated that most white folks didn’t think race was involved in the government’s response, where as black folks overwhelmingly thought race was involved with the slow-to-no-response. The corporate media used the polling of white folks’ feelings on the matter as a base for discrediting black peoples’ emotions and life experiences.
The corporate media with its omnipresence, like a magician, is able to make black people disappear, our pain, our life experience, our thoughts, and our intelligence, means absolutely nothing when it contradicts a white belief system.
WHITE HOT MADNESS
by Malik Isasis
During the Civil Rights Era, the media tried discrediting Martin Luther King, Jr. when he spoke truth to power by inflating white fear of black nationalism. Here we go again, with a very unimaginative, but very effective media psy-ops, to discredit not only a national scholar, but also the President of the United States just as they did a long list of black social activists.
When President Obama is perceived as being too black, or siding with blacks, the corporate media rushes in like a nun, smacking his hand with the proverbial ruler. Black folks’ anger about racial profiling has to be pre-approved by the white corporate infrastructure. Since President Obama disagreed with the arrest of Professor Gates, the corporate media has rushed to do polls to show that a majority of whites disagreed with the president, and that a large majority of black folks agreed with the president, and wouldn’t you know, black folks’ opinions weren’t even considered, plainly obvious in the booking of white punditry and blackface likeminded commentators to discuss racial profiling in America.
The Forensics of Jeremiah Wright: How Playing the game Lead to President’s Obama predictable Response to Professor Henry Louis Gates’, Jr. Arrest
President Obama set precedence for the corporate media when during the campaign last summer, a video of his then pastor, Jeremiah Wright, preaching black liberation theology and politics, surfaced. The corporate media worked themselves into lather after Obama initially came out in support of Pastor Wright. The punditry class from their ivory towers raised their fists and demanded that Obama disown his pastor for weeks, spending hours upon hours dissecting Wright’s words and penning the tail on the donkey of the Obama campaign. The corporate media has sanctioned Obama for NOT throwing his former pastor under the bus the first time, and embracing him as family. The price: nearly two months of a non-stop thirty second excerpt, looping over and over, and over of Reverend Wright’s fiery delivery of “…God damn America…” and an over appraisal of then candidate Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination. Then candidate Obama gave a speech on race in Philadelphia to which, Knuckle-dragger, Charles Krauthammer responded,“he blamed everybody for racism -- black, white and grandmother, except himself,” he nonetheless “was hailed by a supine press as the second coming of Lincoln at Cooper Union. So after, that you think you can say anything on race and be hailed as a genius.”
It wasn’t until Pastor Jeremiah Wright came out again and spoke of governmental AIDS conspiracies and racism that Obama decided to denounce him and leave the church. After candidate Obama’s denouncement of Wright, the punditry and corporate media put forth the supposition that Obama did it only because it was causing his poll numbers to go down.
The media reported on Reverend Jeremiah Wright with their foot on the scale, and then pretended that it is Obama’s problem. He quickly got the message and promptly disowned Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Black politicians are always asked to repudiate or distance themselves from black activists, however when it comes to white, right wing radical hate mongers such as Pat Robertson, or the late Jerry Farwell, white politicians aren't held to the same standard.
Obama has played the game. Now they’ve defined the narrative. So when it came to case of Professor Henry Louis, Gates Jr., the outcome was predictable.
President Obama came out strong for Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. during a press conference on health care. Stating that he didn’t have all the facts, but knowing that Gates was arrested after showing his identification was racial profiling. The corporate media predictably went ape shit, hour after hour, stating that the president shouldn’t have come down on the side of the professor.
One writer for a paper went as far as to report: Fellow officers, black and white, say Crowley is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout. That’s equivalent of saying, “Some of my best friends are black.”
The corporate media is one of the most destructive forces in American culture. Remember the Roman gladiatorial combats? Man versus man—man versus beast? Thousands would pack the coliseum just to watch the bloody carnage; what about some of the theocratic governments in the Middle East where there are government sponsored stonings or beheadings in a soccer stadium? Or how about in the early 20th century America, where people would get dressed in their Sunday’s best to see a lynching?
This is what the corporate media tries to tap into, humanity’s morbid fascination with violence, destruction and death. The corporate media sickness lies in its collective ideology: white supremacy. White supremacy is the idea that white people are more superior to other ethnic groups, and anything that veers outside of the white knowledge base is seen as a threat; the corporate media and higher education would have you believe that exclusively skinheads or other white separatist groups hold this ideology, but in fact, it is the founding ideology of the United States. It is why this country was founded on twin genocides of Native Americans and African slaves. It is why there was a hundred years of American apartheid against African Americans in the United States after the abolishment of slavery. It is also why, this country feels it can occupy and subjugate two Muslim countries. And it is why when other ethnic groups speak out about the injustices and destructiveness of the white supremacy ideology, they are quickly discredited.
Black folks are supposed to be quiet about their genocide. We are told that it is history, and to stop whining. Those who do not shut up are labeled race baiters, or race pimps, or even black separatist. Never mind that collectively, African Americans hold absolutely no power in this country.
The continuing legacy of white supremacy is what Dr. Martin Luther King referred to as the false sense of white superiority and a false sense of black inferiority. This Eurocentric view drives those who have bought into white supremacy to believe that white people consequently have an obligation to breakdown other cultures making them completely docile, thus, easier to rule over.
Corporate media likes to pretend and spread folklore that racism and white bigotry starts with someone like reverend Al Sharpton, but it is a ploy, if you discredit Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson, you discredited black thought. The cognitive dissonance is astounding, which allows the perversity of Fox News and people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to call Judge Sonia Sotomayor for wanting more people of color in law, and President Obama for nominating her, reverse racists.
One of the biggest issues of white supremacy is the perception of experience. White folks tend to think that their life experience is more important than others. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a poll indicated that most white folks didn’t think race was involved in the government’s response, where as black folks overwhelmingly thought race was involved with the slow-to-no-response. The corporate media used the polling of white folks’ feelings on the matter as a base for discrediting black peoples’ emotions and life experiences.
The corporate media with its omnipresence, like a magician, is able to make black people disappear, our pain, our life experience, our thoughts, and our intelligence, means absolutely nothing when it contradicts a white belief system.
posted by Malik Isasis at
12:39 AM
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